Governmental search for conceptual approaches to municipal self-government reform in the mid-19th century (Development of the "main grounds of rules" for public municipal administration of capital cities and Odesa)

This study is dedicated to exploring the practice of building a local self-government system in the Russian Empire, which differed from the European experience. This system was created exclusively through the government's initiatives and efforts, with minimal public intervention. The combination of methodological approaches to solving the set tasks relied precisely on the historical dimension. Combined with a functional approach, it allowed for reconstructing a systematic picture of the researched subject. This way, government measures were analysed to develop the "main grounds of rules" for public urban administration of capital cities and Odesa. Special attention was paid to the differences in the Regulation on the Public Order of the City of Odesa regarding implementing the principle of all- class inclusiveness and independence in public administration. Given the urgency of the problem of self-government for society, it was highly politicised, especially by Soviet historiography, and was far from impartial research. Therefore, the authors aimed to provide an unbiased view of the legislative process. Prospects for further research lie in seeking ways to return the self-governing traits genetically inherent to Ukrainians and to build Ukrainian statehood based on the dominance of local self-government in the political organisational and institutional-functional aspects.